1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fishing lures, and more particularly pertains to a fishing lure which simulates the appearance and movement of a live crab. Crustaceans such as crayfish, shrimp and crabs are an extremely effective live bait for use in ocean fishing. However, it is difficult to keep these animals fresh and alive for protracted periods during fishing. When these animals die, their effectiveness as bait greatly diminishes. Various attempts have been made in the prior art to produce artificial fishing lures which simulate these live crustaceans. However, these conventional devices do not simulate the motion of the live animals and are thus of a limited effectiveness. In order to overcome these problems, the present invention provides a crab-shaped fishing lure which utilizes a plurality of pairs of legs adapted to simulate lifelike movement during use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of artificial crustacean fishing lures are known in the prior art. A typical example of such a fishing lure is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 121,694, which issued to F. Nichols on July 30, 1940. This patent discloses a shrimp-shaped lure having a plurality of pairs of legs. U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,668, which issued to C. Burke on Sept. 27, 1955, discloses a method of making a crustacean-shaped fishing lure by molding from initially liquid plastic materials. U.S. Pat. No. 3,377,734, which issued to L. Snow on Apr. 16, 1968, discloses a fishing lure in the shape of a shrimp having an elongated body molded of a flexible rubber-like material and having a plurality of pairs of legs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,144, which issued to D. Lincoln on Apr. 15, 1969, discloses an articulated crawfish-shaped fishing lure with a tail member adapted to oscillate during movement of the lure through the water. U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,352, which issued to H. Firmin on May 14, 1985, discloses an artificial crawfish lure formed from a resilient body having a cantilevered tail portion with a plurality of fabrication seams to allow lateral movement. When the lure is pulled through the water, water flowing around the tail portion imparts an oscillation to simulate the backward swimming motion of a live crawfish.
While the above mentioned devices are suited for their intended usage, none of these devices disclose a crab-shaped fishing lure having a plurality of pairs of legs provided with cavities for imparting life-like movement to the legs. Additionally, none of the aforesaid devices disclose the provision of cavities of varying cross sectional areas on different pairs of legs to vary the rates of movement thereof. Additional features of the present invention, not contemplated by the aforesaid prior art devices include the provision of an upper section of a leg with a stiffening member to produce varying rates of movement between upper and lower sections of the leg, the provision of rearwardly extending stabilizing flaps on the upper leg sections and the provision of a stabilizing fin assembly in a recess of the body portion. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of fishing lures, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such fishing lures, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.